Hedgemon wins $15,000 in inaugural CWRU startup competition

March 22, 2018

Hedgemon, the company co-founded by Drs. Emily Kennedy and Bill Hsiung, UA’s first two graduates with Ph.D.-level biomimicry training, continues to gain funding for its hedgehog-inspired helmet lining designed to prevent concussions and other brain injuries to football players.

Hedgemon came in second place in the inaugural Morgenthaler-Pavey Startup Competition that took place at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) on March 19, winning $15,000.

The money will be used toward creating a full helmet — designs of the quill-like liner have been fine-tuned over the last two to three years — from which they need data “in order to tell us how it compares to what’s on the market now, and to give us standardized numbers we can pass along to possible partners and other funders,” explained Nathan Swift, Hedgemon’s COO and a CWRU grad, on 90.3 WCPN.